Jonah is swallowed by a large fish. Things seem hopeless for him. Hes gonna die soon right? But then... he decides to pray. Listen in as Thomas Terry unpacks this story for Trinity.
Transcript
Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. We hope this message inspires you, roots you down deep into the Lord, into His Word, and may His Spirit be your guide as you enjoy this teaching. Thanks for joining us. Here’s the message. This morning’s text continues in Jonah, starting from chapter 1, verse 17, and extending through chapter 2, verse 10. And the Lord God appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas. And the flood surrounded me.
All your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight. Yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Seaweed was wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
The Conversion Story
This, brothers and sisters, is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, if you are a genuine Christian, then you have a conversion story. It’s what many of us call a testimony. Every Christian can and should be able to retell the amazing story of how God brought you from death to life. How he opened up your deaf ears to the truth of his glorious gospel, and how he gave you a new heart that enabled for you to not only recognize your sin, but also turn from your sin and turn to him. Now, the circumstances of your conversion story will vary from person to person because God saves all kinds of people, from all kinds of backgrounds, and from all kinds of baggage. While there are differences in the how you became converted, the who and the what of the conversion stories are always the same.
So whether you were saved as an adult from a drug-addicted past, or whether you were saved as a young child who was raised in a good Christian home, the same in the story is that Jesus Christ miraculously brought you out of the darkness into his marvelous light to save you from your sins. And this is a glorious story that never gets old. In fact, throughout all the ages, Christians have over and over again retold the same but personal story of how God has miraculously drawn people to himself to save them. But there is a different kind of story that is sometimes told. And sadly, in recent years, it’s become extremely popular, and these are called deconversion stories, where those who once professed faith in Jesus Christ are now retelling their personal stories of how they’ve run away from God into the abyss of spiritual nothingness.
And just like these conversion stories, though they differ slightly from person to person, there are certain characteristics of these deconversion stories that are exactly the same. They usually begin with a subtle self-realization that their personal view of love, justice, and human flourishing is far better than God’s view of love, justice, and human flourishing, which gradually moves them into an understanding that God’s laws are not only not good, but they are somehow toxic for people, at least according to their own moral and reasonable standards. And, of course, in order to maintain that view that God is not good or God is toxic, they have to completely abandon God’s word as inspired, authoritative, or something that must be submitted entirely under. And then what finally and pridefully follows is a complete severing of the conscience in an attempt to reject the presence of God, the power of God, and the sovereignty of God
in the world that God created. And if left unchecked, if left to themselves, or uninterrupted, these once-professing believers turn unbelievers will continue on this road of their perceived spiritual liberation into spiritual ruin, and then ultimately into spiritual death, proving that they were never really converted to begin with. But long before these deconversion stories existed and the road to spiritual ruin was popularized, Jonah, the runaway prophet, was on the same road. In fact, we’ve seen this over and over again in the last month, how Jonah has been on this consistent downward road of spiritual ruin. Jonah had come to believe that his understanding of love, justice, and human flourishing was far better than God’s. Jonah began to doubt God’s goodness, because why in the world would God want to show mercy to the Ninevites, the enemies of Israel, God’s people? And so Jonah chooses to disobey God’s words of mercy to Nineveh.
Jonah refused to submit under God’s authority. Jonah continued to sever his conscience in an attempt to escape the presence of God, the power of God, and the sovereignty of God. He runs, he hides, he sleeps. He tells the sailors, throw me into the sea because I’d rather die than submit to the God of all creation. Jonah was on a road to spiritual ruin and even spiritual death. Jonah was facing a deconversion experience. But by the grace of God and by the mercy of God, the Lord interrupted Jonah’s running. Our passage this morning beautifully and creatively tells the story of Jonah’s road from spiritual ruin to spiritual renewal. And our passage this morning is an interesting one because it’s a combination really of two genres. It contains both historical narrative and poetry. In fact, the historical narratives actually serve as bookends to these two beautiful poetic
prayers that are sandwiched in the middle. And just a side note, the fact that the book of Jonah even has these poems in it is not only beautiful, but it’s also very helpful for us. Because where a narrative gives you a biographical account concerning the historical events of Jonah, the poetry gives you Jonah’s personal experience, his emotional and visceral response to these historical events. And knowing how Jonah felt during this whole encounter helps us to feel and experience God’s mercy in a way that is more than just information or academic. I mentioned this before, that we’re not to read Jonah’s story as a historical book only, but we should see it more as a mirror, as an instrument to see ourselves, to not only understand certain things about us, but also to help us feel the weight of God’s mercy. One of the most wonderful things about poetry is how it has the power to make you feel things.
God Saves Runaways
And I draw that to your attention this morning because I don’t want you to check out when we get to these beautiful poetic parts. Instead, I want to encourage you to let these poetic prayers have their way with you emotionally and experientially. So to help us along this morning, I’ve broken up our passage this morning into four sections, two parts that are narrative and two parts that are poetry. So we’ll look at the sovereign God that saves runaways, the prayer of deep despair, the prayer of thanksgiving and praise, and the sovereign God that commissions runaways. So let’s begin in chapter one, verse 17, with the sovereign God that saves runaways. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. In Jonah’s rebellion against God, he’s finally run out of options. He’s tried every way possible to escape his conscience, but nothing seems to work.
God sends a storm to stop him from running. God sends the captain of the ship to keep him from sleeping. God uses the luck of the draw to expose him. God uses the sailors to rebuke him as a hypocrite and a fool for trying to run from the God of creation. So with no other options on the table, essentially Jonah tells the sailors, hey, let’s kill two birds with one stone. Throw me into the raging sea. It will be calm for you and it will be death for me. We both get what we want in the end. Jonah in his deep spiritual depression does not turn from the rebellion that caused his depression in the first place, nor does he turn to God in repentance. Instead, he turns away from the presence of God into what he perceives would be a quick and certain death.
And so the sailors who are also left with no other options, reluctantly tossed Jonah into the depths of the sea and immediately the raging sea ceased. The sailors got what they wanted. But God, the one who runs after runaways, won’t let Jonah get what he wants. God won’t let him die in the depths of the sea. The God who spoke all creation into existence, including the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves on the ground, sovereignly appoints a great fish to swallow up Jonah to save him from a certain and quick death. Jonah was in every way rebellious and reckless with his life and his conduct, but God rescued him from physical death with this great fish. And how many of us can relate to this kind of mercy who saved us when we were rebellious and reckless? Maybe we weren’t saved by a great fish while we were drowning in the sea, but we can all
relate to being saved by a great savior when we were drowning in our sin. You see, brothers and sisters, this is the God that we worship, the God of the scriptures, the God who was in the business of rescuing rebellious and reckless runaway sinners from physical and spiritual death. You see, it’s not just physical death that God rescues Jonah from, it’s also a spiritual death. Let’s look at the second half of verse 17, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Why three days and three nights? I mean, the all powerful God of creation could have had the fish swallow up Jonah and spit him out on the shore in an instant, but God kept Jonah in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Why? Because God had work to do with Jonah to save him from spiritual death.
See, it’s going to be a process for Jonah. And so just like the storm, the Lord summons creation again to do his divine bidding to swallow up Jonah, and the Lord also sovereignly sealed the mouth of the fish to keep Jonah in that belly for three days while God did his work on Jonah. And what was that work? Well, first, God needed to get Jonah alone and low, away from the world above the waters where Jonah tried to control everything. God needed to get Jonah down and humble. Jonah has been exceedingly reckless with his God and with his actions, and God needed to slow him down, to give him time and space to think about all that Jonah has been doing. So the stomach of the fish was an instrument to deliver Jonah from death, but it was also an instrument of captivity, a swallowing into solitary confinement as a means to teach and
train Jonah, to force him to sit in the tension of his consistent sin and rebellion against God. And as soon as Jonah realizes that he’s escaped death, that he’s been delivered from drowning in the depths of the sea, he uses his newfound appreciation for breathing to do what he should have done a long time ago, pray. To pray. You remember a few weeks back when we talked about the captain of the ship appealing to Jonah to wake up from his sleep? What did the captain say to Jonah? Wake up, pray to your God that he might save us. But what did Jonah do? He refused. He kept his obstinate and arrogant lips shut. You see, oftentimes the Lord will force us to stay in the deep and difficult places to humble us, to crush us of our pride and our obstinance. And that’s a principle that we as Christians really struggle to understand, that God will
do whatever he sees fit to bring us low, even if it means keeping us in dark and difficult places. But listen, God does this because it’s the only way up from our spiritual pride and arrogance, from our obstinance and rebellion. Our only hope is to be brought low. If we intend to grow spiritually, it will be owing all to the fact that God has brought us low and made us humble. And here now, with the very breath that Jonah has while he sits in the belly of this fish, Jonah finally speaks to his God. After all the running and hiding and attempting to escape from the presence of God, Jonah finally gets before the face of God and humbly prays. And we see that in chapter two, verse one, then, then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. There’s a strong emphasis on that word then.
It’s about time, Jonah. And it’s interesting that when Jonah finally decides, okay, now I’m going to pray, he does it in the form of poetry. I can rock with that. He does it in the form of these two beautiful and poetic prayers, which shows you that he’s thinking about his prayers, that he’s mulling over it, that he’s being calculated with his prayers, that it’s emotional for him. It’s not just, oh, it’s all good, Lord, do what you’re going to do. There’s a strong emotional response to these prayers. See, up to this point in the narrative, we’ve seen what happened with Jonah, historically speaking. We understand, yet God ultimately delivered Jonah from death. But the narrative up to this point doesn’t give you the details concerning all the chaos that happened prior to Jonah being delivered. It’s only when we come to this first poetic prayer where we actually get Jonah’s reflection
before being swallowed by this fish. And this is huge, because with this poem, we get to experience what Jonah was thinking and feeling through his near-death experience. It’s often said that when someone faces a near-death experience, that even though it happens quite quickly, like in a span of a few seconds, it’s almost as if everything moves in slow motion. It’s as if the brain has a way of slowing down the actual events to record and highlight all the dramatic details concerning the chaos. Because these near-death experiences are not normal, the way our brain processes them are unique. And so in verses 2 through 6, we get Jonah’s slow-motion reflection of his near-death experience in the form of a prayer, the prayer of deep despair. Now, typically, when we go through passages in Scripture and we preach it, we go line by line in a chronological order.
Prayer of Deep Despair
But because this is poetry, I’m going to go through this in an order that actually makes more sense for us. If you look at your Bibles, you’re going to see that between verses 2 through 6, there’s five stanzas. Those five stanzas are what’s called a chiasm. It’s where you move from the outermost parts of those stanzas and make your way to the center. And once you get to the center, you actually understand the main emphasis of the poem. And so if you’re the note-taking type, then it might be helpful for you to take your pencil or your pen and make a few little notes about the structure of the stanza. So in your Bible, when you see those five stanzas, between 2 and 6, in the first stanza, which should begin at verse 2, write the letter A. In the second stanza, write the letter
B. The third stanza, write the letter C. The fourth stanza, write the letter B. And the fifth stanza, write the letter A. And so what you should end up with is A, B, C, B, A. That’s the way this is meant to be understood and read. So we’ll deal with the A’s together because they’re a couplet. Then we’ll deal with the B’s together. And then finally, we’ll deal with C at the center. Now keep in mind, this is poetry, so there’s going to be a bit of repetition. So Jonah, looking back on his near-death experience, begins in verses 2 and 6. He says, I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever, yet you brought up my life
from the pit, O Lord my God. Here Jonah poetically begins to explain his progressive descent into his drowning death. As he begins to sink into the depths of the sea in this near-death kind of fear, he cries out to the Lord. As he descends, Jonah’s faced with the sudden realization that his words to the sailors have actual consequences. Though he said with his lips, throw me overboard, here we realize Jonah didn’t really mean it. Though he thought with his mind that dying in the sea was a far better option for him, here he quickly realizes, I was wrong. In fact, the moment he hits the sea and the water begins to pull him down, he realizes, I made a huge mistake, a life-threatening mistake. You see, Jonah didn’t really want to die. He was simply trying to escape from God. And as the cold, rushing water wrapped over his head, and as he is cut off from his life-giving
oxygen above, he senses the severity of his distress. He’s desperate. He can’t do anything to save himself now. He’s helpless and hopeless, and so he finally cries out to the only one who can save him. The text says he cried out from the belly of Sheol, and that’s just a poetic way of saying he cried out from the depths of the grave. So what Jonah means to say here quite plainly in this poem is that his death was imminent. There was no way out for Jonah. He might as well be a dead man. Jonah writes that his sinking went all the way down to the land whose bars closed upon him forever. Jonah, although conscious for the moment, has dropped to the bottom-most parts of the sea, where the sandbars cover him like a makeshift prison grave that keeps him from escaping death. Jonah’s escape from death was impossible.
But it’s there, at the bottom-most part of the sea, where Jonah cries out for deliverance. And it’s there where God brings him out of the pit. And don’t miss the poetic beauty in these stanzas. All throughout Jonah’s narrative, Jonah has dramatically emphasized the fact that he was on a downward path. The Lord told Jonah, go up to Nineveh. What did Jonah do? He went down to Joppa. He got on a ship, he paid the fare, and he went down into the ship. The Lord sent a storm at the ship to break apart the ship. Jonah went down into the bottom-most part of the ship to sleep. The sailors asked Jonah, what should we do to stop the sea from raging? Jonah says, throw me into the depths of the sea where I’ll sink down to the bottom. Jonah continued to move in this downward motion of rebellion that was pulling him to death.
And for the very first time, he sees death at his front door. And Jonah looks upward towards the God of heaven that he’s been running from, consistently running from. And the Lord meets him there and pulls him out of the pit. The Lord raised Jonah from death to life. And this is the very first time in this book where we see the prophet of God demonstrate any kind of humility. Above the water, Jonah was trying to control everything. He tried to manipulate the sailors, the captain, he tried to control his own life. And in many ways, he was trying to control the hand of God. Here now, Jonah relinquishes his control. And the truth is, he never really had any control to begin with. But now he recognizes it. And he has no choice but to look up and pray to the God who is the only one capable of
delivering him, the God of creation. Jonah has been humbled under the mighty hand of God. And in verses three and five, you really begin to see the humility and desperation of Jonah. It says, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. The mountains were wrapped about my head at the root of the mountains. Part of what we see here with Jonah’s poetry is an emphasis on the sovereignty of God, but also a submission to the Lord’s chastening and humbling work. I mean, look at the phrase Jonah chooses to use here. He says, you, meaning the Lord, cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas. All your waves, Lord, and your billows, Lord, passed over me.
Jonah is implying that God is responsible for throwing Jonah into the sea, that God is responsible for the waves and billows, for the waters attempting to take his life. But was it not Jonah’s doing that got him thrown into the sea in the first place? Was it not Jonah’s rebellion that caused for God to send the storm to begin with? Wasn’t it Jonah that told the sailors to throw him overboard into the water? Yes, it was all Jonah’s doing, all of it. Jonah was suffering the consequences of his own sin, but God used it all to chasten Jonah. Jonah realized here that God is sovereign over all the affairs of men, all the rebellious plans and schemes of men, including Jonah’s reckless plan to be thrown overboard into the sea. Jonah is testifying here with this poetic prayer, what we would call the doctrine of
divine concurrence, that God’s divine work runs parallel with people, with the works of people. Even when those people have evil intentions, that though Jonah was the one who initiated and intended for the sailors to throw him overboard to his death so that he could escape from the Lord, the Lord used every part of the process for his own divine purposes. And we see this all the time in scripture, what man uses for evil, God continues to use for good. I mean, think about the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. Evil men killed our Lord Jesus on the cross, but through that evil act, through his death and through his resurrection, we now have life. While God is in no way responsible for the evil that men do, God often uses it and turns the situation for his good and divine purposes. Jonah’s rebellion and the consequences of his rebellion were on full display as he descended
into the sea, but God used it for his purposes. God’s discipline and his mercy was in the midst of the whole process, all of it. The water and the currents that began to sink Jonah down like an anchor to the bottom of the sea, his breath that was slowly being depleted from Jonah’s lungs, the fear that forced Jonah, his face upward, the light that pierced through the glassy sea to remind Jonah that there’s light above the waters and the billows, the consistent and slow descent into the darkness, the fading of light that plunged Jonah into the deeper shades of darkness, the seaweed that wrapped around Jonah and pulled him down until he finally hit the very bottom of the seashore. God used all of it to bring him low, both spiritually and physically, because it’s only when Jonah gets there, when Jonah is at his lowest of lows, when there is no more bottom
that Jonah could possibly go through, when Jonah’s life and breath threatened to leave the body, when he is at the base of the mountains in a sandbar grave, it’s at that point when he finally calls out to his God. And when Jonah looks up and calls out for his God to meet him in his desperate distress, our gracious and loving God meets him there to lift him up out of the pit. You see, Jonah recognized his responsibility for being in the pit was his own doing, but he also recognized that God used the pit to lift his eyes upward towards his merciful God. And listen, this is very important to understand. It’s not enough for you to be brought to your lowest point in life to have a spiritual experience. All kinds of people hit rock bottom and have a spiritual experience. Some people hit the bottom and somehow pull themselves up out of the pit, change the way
they live through meditation, through diet, through exercise, through counseling, or whatever. And they do experience some kind of spiritual experience, but listen, the religion of self-help won’t save you from dying a spiritual death. It won’t. If you want to be delivered from spiritual death, then hitting the bottom is not enough for you. You need to pray at the bottom. You need to pray a desperate prayer in the darkness and call out to Jesus because he is the only one who can save you from your sin. And when you do that, he will meet you there and pull you out of the pit and deliver you from spiritual death. And in verse four, you see here that the main thrust of this first poetic poem, when Jonah begins to evidence his spiritual renewal, he says, Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.
See Jonah here recognizes that his disobedience and his recklessness deserves an eternal banishment from the presence of God. This whole time Jonah’s been attempting to run from the presence of God, but he couldn’t do it. There’s a creature-creator distinctive going on here. Jonah, the creative one, doesn’t get to choose to escape from the presence of God. God, the creator, determines whether Jonah will get to experience the privilege of having God’s presence. You see, when you sin against a king, you deserve to be banished from that king’s kingdom. He has the right because he’s sovereign over that kingdom. When you sin against the God of the cosmos, the one sovereign over all creation, whose presence is everywhere, you deserve to be banished from his creation. You see, Jonah’s theology of justice is right. He understands that sin against a holy God deserves eternal death, eternal separation
from the presence of God. But Jonah’s theology of mercy is also right. This is why he says, yet I shall look upon your holy temple. He deserves wrath, but he knows his God is full of mercy. The reason he emphasizes looking upon the holy temple is because the temple is where the very presence of God was most tangible. The temple is where the priests would make atoning sacrifices to God. The temple is where the law of God was taught. The temple was the visible gathering of worshiping community. That’s where the people of God were present. Jonah, the runaway prophet who tried to run for the presence of the Lord, now longs to be in the presence of the Lord and in the presence of the Lord’s people. As he is delivered from both physical and spiritual death, it prompts this second poetic prayer of Jonah, the prayer of thanksgiving and praise.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
We begin in verse seven. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you into your holy temple. Now, it’s important to know here that Jonah is still in the belly of the fish. He is in the dark and wet prison of sorts when he prays this prayer of thanksgiving and praise. Now, that’s not common for us. It’s usually when we’re liberated where we give prayers of praise and thanksgiving, but not for Jonah. Although his circumstances are not the greatest, his deliverance from physical and spiritual death is enough to recite his unrehearsed poem declaring his remembrance and renewed certainty in the one true God, as well as his renewed appetite for God’s grace. Here Jonah in his prayer of thanksgiving and praise tells the Lord, I will no longer run from you. I won’t do it anymore.
I’m done running. This is what Jonah means when he says he remembered the Lord. He remembered his covenant God, and he is now turning back to the God he’s known and professed. Instead of running from the presence of God, Jonah in his prayer brings his prayer into the presence of God. This is what he means when he says my prayer came to you into your holy temple. This brothers and sisters is what spiritual renewal looks like. Turning back to your God. Getting before that familiar face and that familiar presence of God. No more running from him. No more hiding. No more attempting to escape from him. No more severing your conscience. Now running into the presence of God. And his prayer continues in verse eight and nine. He says, those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I, with a voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord. In this section, Jonah declares both a warning and a welcome. His prayer is directed to the Lord, but it’s also a declaration. He’s saying this out loud. To who? I don’t know. He’s in a fish. Maybe it’s because he knows that others will eventually read this poetic prayer. He wants them to know. Those who trust in fake gods and in vain idols will never taste the grace of the one true God. They will never experience meaningful deliverance because those fake gods can’t do anything for you. Whatever they may be. In fact, the more you give regard to those things, the more you forfeit the grace that the one true God freely gives to those who trust in him. Is your idol money and success, fame, sex, whatever it is, none of those idols will run after you and chase you and deliver you.
They won’t do it. That’s what Jonah is professing and declaring out loud to his God. They’re all worthless. You are the one true God. You are the giver of grace and mercy. You see, through this whole experience, he has tasted the steadfast love of God and declares that others can experience the same steadfast love if they would but turn to the Lord. Then Jonah makes this renewed commitment to follow the Lord and his commands. Jonah declares, I will make sacrifices to you and I will keep my commitment to you. You are my God and I vow to do whatever you call me to do. And then Jonah brings us to the apex of his poetic prayer by declaring this most profound truth. Salvation belongs to the Lord. See, Jonah knows his sin deserves death, but God saved him. Not because Jonah did all the right things.
Obviously, Jonah’s got everything backwards, but God in his free and radical grace saved Jonah despite his rebellion, despite his running, despite his foolishness, because God is good and because salvation is his to give to whomever he chooses. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Jonah experiences this salvation and he’s caught up. That’s why he puts it in a poem. He’s caught up in praise and thanksgiving. Now, listen, Jonah is saying a whole lot of things here based on his personal experience, but I don’t think Jonah really understands the weight of all the things that he’s saying or the fact that what he’s declaring out loud is true, not only for him, but also for other people, including those God has called Jonah to go to, to proclaim the truth to. Jonah has experienced firsthand God’s faithfulness, steadfast love, mercy, grace, deliverance from death and salvation. So he praises God.
He recommits himself to obedience. His prayers and his piety are genuine, but there’s something missing in Jonah’s prayer. Jonah has prayed that God would deliver him from death. Jonah has declared that God is merciful and full of steadfast love. Jonah has recommitted himself to follow God and to make sacrifices to God, but Jonah has failed to do the most important thing, repent. There is nothing in Jonah’s prayer that would indicate a heart change towards the people of Nineveh. Though he says with his words in the form of this exuberant poetic prayer that God extends grace to everyone who calls upon his name, though he says with his mouth, this most profound truth that salvation belongs to the Lord, his heart has not been sufficiently moved enough to enthusiastically bring the message of mercy and salvation to the Ninevites. And brothers and sisters, this will be made more clear as we dive through this book.
You see, although his praise was genuine, Jonah’s protest was also genuine. Jonah will still protest God’s mercy and goodness to Israel’s enemies. So even though Jonah will no longer run from God, Jonah has yet to demonstrate real repentance concerning the Ninevites. And this reality is a tension that might be hard for us to swallow. I mean, when we read this passage, we just automatically make the assumption that Jonah must have repented. I mean, there’s so many good and spiritual things going on in Jonah’s heart. We want the passage to end with Jonah’s heart radically changed towards the Ninevites. But we don’t get what we want in this passage. Instead, we get tension. We get a reality check that faith is complicated, that God’s work of spiritual maturity is progressive. We get a realistic picture that as believers, we can experience deep and dark despair, call
out to God and be delivered by the mighty hand of God. We can even experience spiritual renewal and move from the road of ruin to renewal and still struggle, still wrestle, and still protest against our God. You see, though we have been given new hearts, our hearts are still prone to wander from the God we love. Our hearts can and often do protest against the God we profess to love. Here’s the truth. We can experience spiritual renewal while still struggling spiritually. And that’s a reality that should give you a new appreciation for the grace and mercy of God. Because when our prayers and thanksgiving and praise don’t perfectly correspond with our hearts and our attitudes, when our confession of recommitment and sacrifice don’t match our actions, God still loves us and pursues us. He still runs after us and lovingly leads us to repentance. Despite our inconsistencies and our shortcomings, God is still merciful.
God Commissions Runaways
He’s still merciful to us. The Lord knew Jonah’s heart. The Lord knew that Jonah would still protest his message of mercy to the Ninevites. The Lord knew that Jonah would be reluctant to obey. But the Lord also knew that Jonah’s praise and thanksgiving of deliverance was genuine. And we see in verse 10, the sovereign God that commissions runaways. Look at verse 10. And the Lord spoke to the fish and vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. You see, brothers and sisters, this is the God that we serve, the one who is well acquainted with our corrupt and imperfect hearts, the one who knows us better than we know ourselves, the one who knows that we are still sinners. Even though that’s the case, he still chooses to use us as instruments of mercy for his glory, for our good, and for the good of his people.
Even when those people are God-hating Ninevites or pagan Portlanders. God appointing the fish to spit Jonah onto the shore is God’s reappointing of Jonah to the work of ministry, even with Jonah’s unresolved heart issues. Why does God do that? Because God will work through Jonah, and as he works through Jonah, God will work on Jonah. Because our God is a God that is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will work on us progressively and lovingly lead us to the road of repentance. Can I ask you this morning, are you on a road of spiritual ruin? Can I ask this question whether you’re a Christian or not? Are you on the road to spiritual ruin? Are you so deep in the darkness that you can’t seem to find your way up or out? Are you desperate for God to save you from yourself and from your sin that is killing
you? You need to do what Jonah did. Look up. In the deep and in the dark, look up and call out to your God. In the depths of your sin and despair, turn your eyes upward to the God of heaven. He will meet you there, and he will pull you out of the pit. By his grace, he will bring you from spiritual death to spiritual life. All you have to do is pray to Jesus. Turn from your sin, the sin that is shackling you, and turn to his saving work. He died to bring you to himself. Believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and he will meet you at the bottom and pull you up. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for your word. It’s so powerful, and so helpful, and so beautiful. That your word that is true and historical is also life giving and life altering.
That your spirit works through your word to change us. Your word reminds us that you are the same, that you are consistent, that you are the one who runs after runaways. Even when we don’t do the right things, you still pursue us because you are a loving and merciful God. All through this passage this morning, we have seen your love for wayward sinners, for rebellious and reckless sinners. God, I pray that would increase our affections for you, that we would see you in a more beautiful and profound way. Help us, Father, to not stay like Jonah, but to be moved out of the pit and to turn in complete repentance. Help us to see you for who you are, and radically change our hearts for your people. We pray in Christ’s name. Thanks for joining us for this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon.
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